UNCRC: Embedding Children's Rights in Public Services Guidance Sub-Group minutes - 16 January 2024

Attendees and apologies

• Lyndsey Saki, Scottish Government (Chair) (LS)
• Luiza Leite, Scottish Government (minutes) (LL)
• Abbie Montgomery-Fox, Children’s Hearing Scotland (AM)
• Ailsa Higgins, Scottish Government (AH)
• Aqeel Ahmed, Scottish Government (AA)
• Ceri Hunter, Scottish Government (CH) 
• Dragan Nastic, Unicef (DN)
• Fatoumata Drammeh, Unicef (FD) 
• Gita Sharkey, Scottish Government (GS) 
• John McDiarmid, Police Scotland (JM)
• Laura Crossan, Police Scotland (LC) 
• Nora Uhrig, Scottish Government (NU) 
• Rachel Nicholson, Scottish Government (RN) 

Apologies:

• Alison Sutherland, Social Work Scotland

• Alistair Stobie, SOLAR
• Cathy Asante, Scottish Human Rights Commission
• Colin Grant, ADES 
• Darren Little, Dumfries and Galloway Council
• Deborah Davidson, ADES
• Eloise Di Gianni, Observatory for Children’s Human Rights Scotland 
• Felicia Szloboda, The Improvement Service
• Joanne Glennie, Right There
• Julie Williams, Quarriers
• Juliet Harris, Together Scotland
• Kenny Meechan, Glasgow City Council/SOLAR 
• Lucinda Rivers, Unicef UK 
• Maria Doyle, Together Scotland 
• Nicola Hogg, SOLAR
• Rebecca Spillane, The Improvement Service 
• Rebekah Cameron-Berry, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) 
• Sarah Rodger, SOLAR
• Suzanne Brown, Quarriers

Items and actions

 Welcome and introductions

LS welcomed attendees and noted apologies received. LS explained that this is the last meeting of the Guidance Subgroup as we’re waiting for Royal Assent of the UNCRC Bill and the statutory guidance is shortly going out to public consultation. LS thanked members for all their help and support in driving this work forward.

Actions from previous meeting

Minutes from the previous meeting of 11 July 2023 have been shared with members and will be made available later on the group page. There were no outstanding actions. 

Update on the UNCRC Bill

The UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill was reconsidered by the Scottish Parliament on 7 December 2023. The amendments to address the Supreme Court judgment on the original Bill were approved and the Bill was passed unanimously. We are now waiting for the Bill to receive Royal Assent. The duties will commence 6 months after Royal Assent so they will come into force around mid 2024.

Once the Bill receives Royal Assent, we will be able to begin to lay provisions in the Scottish Parliament to allow us to issue and consult on the Statutory guidance. It is likely these provisions to consult will be commenced around the end of January. That would mean that the consultation on Part 2 and Part 3 should go live as soon as practicable around then. LS agreed to keep members informed as this progresses. 

Non-statutory guidance was published last week to provide information and resources to support public authorities and other organisations to implement a children’s human rights approach. This is part of our long-term commitment to supporting the cultural change required to ensure that children’s rights are fully and progressively realised in practice. LS thanked the Guidance Subgroup for their support in developing that guidance.

Discussion on final draft copies of the Part 2 and Part 3 statutory guidance

Members will have received the final draft copies of Parts 2 and 3 of the statutory guidance (emailed on 9 January) 

The following comments and feedback were captured: 

Part 2 Guidance:

• LS noted there are mostly changes to structure to make it accessible to readers and some new info on Section 6 duties included. 
• DN provided feedback across both drafts, noting that it would be helpful to find out more about section 2, noting there has been some concern expressed by public authorities which makes section 6 more difficult to determine its implementation. LS agreed to take any comments away for consideration.
• Overall members were happy with the Part 2 guidance draft

Part 3 Guidance:

• Overall members were happy with the Part 3 guidance draft

DN also asked if the guidance and annexes will be updated frequently as a living document. LS clarified that the non-statutory guidance will be periodically updated more frequently as it doesn’t require the full formal consultation process, whereas updates to statutory guidance would need to be subject to a full public consultation. The statutory guidance aims to explain the duties and we don’t expect there will be a great need to update this. LS explained that we can add new resources and information via a number of other channels, i.e. the Skills & Knowledge Framework, non-statutory guidance, etc. 

LS is happy members are content with the drafts and encouraged any further comments to be emailed after this meeting. 

AOB

DN asked about the judiciary and how they’re prepared, as there was previous conversations about judiciary training – LS will check and come back to DN. GS explained there should be court rules on the legislation. 

Next steps for statutory guidance

LS will take more comments via email before close of play today and make any final changes. There will then be an internal sign off process before we can publish the draft guidance. The consultation will go live on citizen space and we will share that through our programme distribution list and various networks. We will also be working with children and young people’s organisations to get their views on. Once we have gathered all responses they will be analysed and a report will be produced.  

LS explained that the Scottish Government may not be able to update the statutory guidance within the 6 month window of commencement, but will aim to publish as soon as possible. 

LS thanked members for their contributions and assistance to get us to this milestone.